The present invention relates to a method by which to fashion a rigid packet with a hinged lid for elongated elements, in particular cigarettes. Whilst reference is made hereinafter to a method of fashioning a rigid packet with hinged lid intended specifically to hold cigarettes, the scope of the invention is by no means limited to such a use. Cigarettes emerging from a manufacturing machine are typically ordered into groups and inserted into packets, each one of which is designed to accommodate a respective group. Each single packet is composed of a carton-like container at bottom, provided with a restraint or frame projecting beyond one open end or edge, a similarly carton-like lid uppermost, and, interposed between the container and the lid, a hinge on which the lid is able to rotate between positions in which the open end of the container is respectively exposed and concealed.
Conventional packets of the type described above are folded generally from respective flat cardboard die-cuts employing a cigarette packaging machine by which previously assembled groups of the cigarettes advancing in succession, each enveloped normally in a respective foil paper wrapping, are paired with corresponding frames bent into a U-shaped profile and fed thus to the face of a wrapping wheel along which a single die-cut is fashioned into a respective packet around each respective group of cigarettes. Naturally enough, the operation of fashioning the die-cut around the respective group of cigarettes involves the application of stresses to the group such as can result in damage to the cigarettes. Considering, moreover, that each packet is formed by folding and gumming a relative flat die-cut, it follows that the finished packets may well exhibit defects in appearance, such as parts that remain or come unstuck and/or deterioration of the cut edges exposed to view.
Given also that these familiar packets are composed of two or more wrapping layers disposed one inside another and fashioned from different materials of which certain are biodegradable only in part, the end-product is relatively expensive to manufacture, and furthermore, cannot be discarded freely in the environment without risk of pollution.